Dueling Kz400's

So can we start jetting yet or what?

Nope. Going to rain everyday forever. So I fabbed a couple other things while waiting for the weather.

The headlight bucket was up way too high for my liking, plus the switch panel was too close. I want to put in a factory ignition switch so the headlight has to go lower. The problem is the brake-line splitter which incorporates the brakelight switch forces the headlight to stick far out when lowered. So I made some ears that can be re-drilled and re-cut later after we get rid of the splitter and maybe use a banjo-brake-switch for the brake-light.

From the two bikes we had two different pairs of mirrors. Each pair had one good one and one bad one. So we took the best of the four and put it on the stocker D4. The other two, I thought were going into the dumpster. One was bent near the threads so the nut didn't turn properly and the other was frozen so it couldn't be adjusted. It was so frozen, the sheet metal on the back had buckled from people trying to move the mirror. So I came up with an idea to make them smaller and more easily adjustable.

I converted the left one into a right one along the way. This was just an experiment so it was fast and ugly.

I had this other mirror someone gave me years ago and I like the design. The glass fell out right away as it was only held in by a few dabs of glue (made in China), but the design made an impression. I liked how it went forward instead of straight up. By going forward, it did not have to be so high to not interfere with your hand.

When welding, definitely cover the glass in cardboard or something. The slag will burn pinholes in the glass.

The glass on these old rusty mirrors would not come clean with any cleaner. I don't know what the shmutz was on the glass but it would not come off. To clean the mirrors I used a brand new, flexible, razor blade and scraped them clean. It was like buffing the glass with the razor. They come out like new.


The mid-adjuster bolt and nut we used matched that of the original stem, though it didn't really have to.
I think the size was M10 x 1.5mm pitch, but I'll have to look back in the notes to confirm that.
M10 comes in at least three different thread pitches, commonly, so it's easy to get the wrong one.

The red coating on the nut vaporized during welding.














Here's the second one.

The tank has been holding a full tank of gas for a month now. So far so good.

I nearly forgot. The throttle control was hitting the tank on the right side. The bike must have gone down because the steering stop was bent up. The left grip had plenty of clearance to the tank, but the right side would hit. So I put in a bigger stop for the right-side (the stop for the right side actually is installed on the left side).

The license plate came in so I quickly fabbed some ears to hold it on. There isn't any real good place to put it, so at least this is an easy fab. I'm not crazy about having the plate hanging off the swingarm etc.

The rear fender and subframe were bent where the right turn-signal attached so I straightened that out while I was working on the plate holder.

Back in October, we had a couple good days before it got too rainy. I was able to get a preliminary jetting just enough to make it rideable. The pilot jet numbers between Mikuni and non-Mikuni do not correspond directly, so we bought some pilots that were bigger than what we wanted based on a smaller number. But we were still able to run them. The bike has rich areas in the pikot range and possibly lean areas in the midrange (needle) but the main jet seems to be close.

I don't want to spend too much time jetting this by seat-of-pants since I know we have to build a wideband kit for testing. My buddy is buying up non-runners for cheap and getting them to run to flip on C-list. So we're going to want an easily installed, temporary wideband o2 rig to figure out jetting on these bikes.

So after just a couple jet swaps, the bike went from idle-only to pretty rideable after warmup. Actually, the bike was quite a blast to ride. Once you got past half throttle the thing really took off. It still has concrete for tires so I didn't want to push it too much.

Here's a vid on where we ended before the weather went to crap. This first video is a cold start. You can really hear the motor struggle to get above idle for the first few seconds. I let it warm up for a couple minutes before riding it and you can still hear it hesitate, but it gets better as it warms up.





This is a longer one (with Kz550 chase vehicle). It's basically just a ride to work.

Can you raise the needle?

On a side note would you be interested in conducting a field trial on a part for a KZ400 and I have an electrical question.
P.M. me.


.

I don't recall exactly, but I think the needle only has one groove. Hopefully I can at least shim it. If I have to lower it for whatever reason, then I might have to find different needles.

I don't actually own any Kz400's. Those belong to my buddy's sons. But he bought another Kz400 a few weeks ago, so we'll definitely be in the Kz400 business for a while.

I'll send a PM.

So short update...

The 77 Kz400D4 had a mishap earlier this spring. It wasn't anything major. Some scrapes and dents but we have it pretty much back up and running. Sorry no photos. The bike pretty much looks the same anyway.

While straightening out the front end, we decided to replace the steering bearings because they felt badly notched. They weren't actually notched, but rust had formed on the races around where the balls were, so the rust formed "notches".

Original bearings measurements for those needing to make a bearing pusher tool. We just used a pipe clamp, 10" piece of conduit, and an old race to push the new race on the stem. The new outer races pushed in easily with a pipe clamp, and again using an old race to push in the new race.
Original Cup ID 31.08 mm
Original Cup OD 48.05 mm
Original Cone ID 29.98 mm
Original Cone OD 46.90 mm

Taper Bearings:
"All Balls Racing"
Made in India
MFR part# 22-1012
CHY30-21E
UPC: 130273
Covers Kz400 and Kz440 along with many other Kawasaki models.
Kz305, Ex305,
Two strokes H1, H2, Kh400, Kh500, S1, S2.
Kit includes two identical sets of taper bearings 99-3515,
and two seals molded onto flat washers 33-1006.
The roller bearings and cage are permanently attached to the inner race (cone).
The outer race (cup) is separate.
The bearings don't include grease.

We used heavy duty wheel bearing grease. You have to pre-pack the bearing with grease before installing so it's quite messy. Use the palm trick to pack the grease in, like with car wheel bearings. Wear gloves. It's carcinogenic.

The two seals add to the stack height, and the stack height would be correct if the seals were not used. Using the seals will require using 1/16" to 1/8" spacers above the headlight ears. This is so that the headlight doesn't rattle.

Old thread but still relevant for stupid carb holder screws - had this happen to me when fixing an 1981 440 ltd and it was an outside... fastforward 4 years and not one but BOTH of my outsides (on #1 and #4) snapped off. May get some lefthanded bits today and drill them out carefully and hope they come out on their own, and collapse em if not. Welding onto them didn't do it for the one and I haven't tried the other. Kroil and brake fluid both attempted
: sad trombone noises :

bluejacobs wrote:

Bump from the dead for stupid carb holder screws - had this happen to me when fixing an 1981 440 ltd and it was an outside... fastforward 4 years and not one but BOTH of my outsides (on #1 and #4) snapped off. May get some lefthanded bits today and drill them out carefully and hope they come out on their own, and collapse em if not. Welding onto them didn't do it for the one and I haven't tried the other. Kroil and brake fluid both attempted
: sad trombone noises :
 

1) It is generally not necessary to bump dormant threads. The original participants may no longer be members of KZR, so you won't get responses, and extracting stuck fasteners is a common enough topic that there will be a lot of threads about it.

2) The individual who started that discussion (loudhvx) actually did pass away a couple years ago, so calling it a "bump from the dead" lands wrong.

fair on the "bump" apologies for the phrasing, had no idea. wiping reply.